International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS)

International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS)

A global community of fire safety scientists and engineers.

A global community of fire safety scientists and engineers.

Member Resources

IAFSS offers a number of valuable resources to members, including free access to our official journal, Fire Safety Journal, and to past symposium proceedings. We also have a Member Forum to facilitate networking and discussion amongst members.  Importantly, members receive a significant discount on registration fees for our International Fire Safety Symposia!

Who We Are

Who We Are

IAFSS was founded with the primary objective of encouraging research into the science of preventing and mitigating the adverse effects of fires and of providing a forum for presenting the results of such research.

Membership

Open to anyone interested in fire safety science and engineering! Become a member, enjoy the membership benefits, and network with our global community.

Committees

Want to help lead our Association and facilitate advancement of fire safety science and engineering? Join one of our many Committees and help lead to into the future!

Working Groups

Do you have an interest in computational fire modeling, large outdoor fires, or human behaviour in fire? Join our many Working Groups and add your expertise and experience!

Resources

Need access to the latest fire safety science research, or to locate seminal research papers? Want to connect to other members? All this and more available to our members!

What We Do

2026 Symposium

To be held in La Rochelle. France, on 8-12 June 2026, the 15th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science will once again bring together the latest advancements in fire safety science and engineering. More information is coming soon.

2023 Symposium

The 14th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science was held in Tsukuba, Japan in October 2023. Click here to view the videos of the following invited presentations:

Invited Plenary Speakers

  • Yuki Akizuki, University of Toyama, Japan, “Evacuation Route Design based on Visibility for Reducing Evacuation Delays”
  • Naian Liu, University of Science and Technology of China, China, “Wildland Surface Fire Spread: Behavior and Mechanism Transformation”
  • Eulalia Planas, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain, “Fires at the Wildland-Industrial Interface: Is There an Emerging Problem?”
  • Stanislav Stoliarov, University of Maryland, USA, “Pyrolysis Model Parameterization and Fire Growth Prediction: The State of the Art”
  • Jennifer Wen, University of Surrey, UK, “Fire Modelling: the Success, the Challenges, and the Dilemma”

Invited Awardees:

  • The Howard W. Emmons Invited Plenary Lectureship: David Purser, Hartford Environmental Research, UK, “Assessment of Pre-Warning, Pre-Movement and Travel Behavior Interactions with Smoke and Toxic Gases during Fire Incidents”
  • Proulx Early Career Award: Ryan Falkenstein-Smith, NIST, USA, “The Equivalence Ratio Concept in Fire Safety Science”
  • Magnusson Early Career Award: Thomas Gernay, Johns Hopkins University, USA, “Performance-Based Design for Structures in Fire: Advances, Challenges, and Perspectives”
  • Best Thesis Award in Asia/Pacific: Xiepeng Sun, USTC, China, joint PhD with Ghent University, Belgium, “Experimental and Theoretical Study on the Ejected Facade Flame Behavior from Compartment Fires under Different Ventilation Conditions”
  • Best Thesis Award in Europe/Africa: Li Ma, Aix-Marseille University, Électricité de France (EDF), France, “Large-Eddy Simulation of Purely Buoyant Diffusion Flames”
  • Best Thesis Award in Americas: Parham Dehghani, University of Maryland, USA, “Using a Gas-Supplied Burner to Obtain Flammability Maps of Solids and Liquids in Microgravity in a Quiescent Ambient without External Radiation”

Webinars

Two of our Working Groups have been running very successful webinar series – Large Outdoor Fires & the Built Environment and Human Behaviour in Fire.  In the coming months you will be able to access these webinars – and more – here on the IAFSS website.  

Summer Schools

IAFSS is exploring opportunities to support PhD Summer Schools in the areas of fire safety science and engineering. Our Early Career Researchers and Professionals (ECRP) Committee has taken on the task to provide input to the Managing Committee on how we might move forward in this area.  Want to help? Consider joining the ECRP Committee!

Early Career

The future of IAFSS is embodied in our current students and early career researchers and professionals.  Helping our early career members is therefore critical to the continued growth and impact of the IAFSS on tackling the world’s fire safety science and engineering challenges. We have made this a significant area of focus for IAFSS, led by early career members, who will be leading us in the future. Check out what they are doing and consider adding your voice to their efforts!

What’s New